According to a release from the EPA Press Office, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of the Army (agencies) are in receipt of the U.S. Supreme Court’s May 25, 2023, decision in the case of Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency. In light of this decision, the agencies are interpreting “waters of the United States” consistent with the Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett.
The agencies are developing a rule to amend the final “Revised Definition of ‘Waters of the United States'” rule, published in the Federal Register on January 18, 2023, consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s May 25, 2023 decision in the case of Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency.
The agencies intend to issue a final rule by September 1, 2023.
House and Senate Republican committee leaders last week requested a detailed update from the heads of the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about how the agencies plan to immediately implement the Supreme Court’s decision in the Sackett v. EPA case in which the Court ruled that the Biden Administration’s proposed definition of “waters of the United States” was illegal.
The Members specifically expressed concerns that the Biden Administration is taking steps to delay the ruling’s implementation: “In implementing the Court’s decision, the Agencies must adhere to the majority opinion and not slow-walk compliance with the decision. The Agencies wasted valuable time and resources by prioritizing the promulgation of a rule over the first two years of the Biden Administration; that is now clearly unlawful. Notably, this Administration ignored our repeated admonitions that the Agencies should wait until the Supreme Court acted to proceed, and our warnings that the rule being drafted would not be “durable.” Now the EPA and the Corps must work to bring application of WOTUS quickly and effectively in line” with the court’s ruling.
The letter requested a briefing from the Administration before June 28, 2023.
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO), Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee Chairman David Rouzer (R-NC), and Senate Fisheries, Wildlife, and Water Subcommittee Ranking Member Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) requested a briefing and detailed implementation information from EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan and Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Michael L. Connor.
EPA news release, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure news release
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